The Jedi move one step closer to saving the embattled galaxy—only to confront a formidable wall of resistance…

The harrowing search for Zonama Sekot is finally over for Luke Skywalker, Jacen Solo, and the others aboard the Jade Shadow. But joy turns to alarm when the living planet sends a defiant message: it refuses to follow them back to a galaxy full of war, exploitation, and misery.

While Luke works feverishly to persuade the elusive planet to reconsider, the Yuuzhan Vong launch a full-scale attack aimed at the heart of the new alliance. Sent to defend a major communications base, Han and Leia find themselves hopelessly outnumbered. Reinforcements are just too far away to help before everything is destroyed. So the courageous pair must now fight an unrelenting battle against staggering odds. Whether they actually survive is another matter…

With Ngaaluh at his side, Nom Anor, still in his guise as the Shamed Ones' Prophet Yu'shaa, gets many inferences into Supreme OverlordShimrra's court, and realizes that the heresy Nom Anor organized is becoming a threat to the Yuuzhan Vong way of life on Yuuzhan'tar. And, taking advantage of this, Nom Anor decides to use Ngaaluh to report lies to Shimrra about certain enemy colleagues of Nom Anor. These lies state that Nom Anor's antagonistic colleagues were corrupt and supporting the Jedi heresy, and the lies pass successfully well in Anor's enemies' eliminations. But Shoon-mi Esh, one of Nom Anor's most trusted assistants, turns on Nom Anor and tries to kill him with a band of other heretics because Shoon-mi knew that Anor didn't care about all those who died for the heresy, and so Shoon-mi is aiming to establish another heresy to overthrow Shimrra. But the Shamed warrior Kunra, another trusted ally of Nom Anor's, saves him from Shoon-mi and the betraying band of heretics, and Nom Anor kills Shoon-mi in retaliation.

On Onadax, Goure Conor told Jaina and her party to go to next after the Battle of Bakura, the plan to reestablish contacts ends badly. But Droma makes it out and gets to Han and Leia and tells them that the Yuuzhan Vong have been attacking certain planets in the Outer Rim to stop contacts between Mon Calamari and the Unknown Regions, and the next target is the starless planet of Esfandia. Jaina, Han, Leia, Droma and Jagged Fel all arrive to Esfandia just in time for the Yuuzhan Vong to attack the planet, but the Galactic Alliance forces are backed up by the Imperial Remnant. So while the Alliance and Remnant forces battle against the Vong above Esfandia, Han, Leia, Droma and C-3PO all go down to the planet to find the Esfandia Long-Range Communications Base. But the Millennium Falcon accidentally kills several of Esfandia's natives, dubbed the "Cold Ones" by the Communications Base inhabitants, the former being ectoplasmic species that are the only thing alive on Esfandia. Han and his company realize about the ignorant massacre they accidentally caused, thanks to help of understanding them by C-3PO, and establish trust between them and the Cold Ones by saving them from a Yuuzhan Vong orbital bombardment. And with that, the Cold Ones lead the Falcon over to the Communications Base. There, the Falcon crew are informed that things are going bad because everyone figured out that there is a traitor among them who works for the Vong, since the Base team found a villip within their station. And on the top hit list of suspects is a suspicious Noghri named Eniknar.

Meanwhile, Tahiri, still in her coma, is having a mental lightsaber duel against Riina Kwaad that she cannot win because they are one and the same, and Riina chips away Tahiri's sanity by reminding her about how guilty she felt after she moved on with her life from Anakin Solo's loss. But Jaina, who left the Battle of Esfandia, joins Tahiri in a Force-meld to battle against Riina. However, after Tahiri learns that Jaina is trying to help, Tahiri manages to finally defeat Riina by mentally joining with her. Hence, Tahiri finally comes out of the coma as a new person, who is a blend of the Jedi she once was but has the toughness and loyalty of a Yuuzhan Vong. Hence, she decides to help in the Battle of Esfandia by tricking the Vong in their attack for the Communications Base. The battle goes sour for the Vong, and at the behest of CommanderB'shith Vorrik, the surviving leaders die in a vain attempt at a suicide run against the Galactic Alliance and Imperial Remnant forces. And with that, communication between Mon Calamari and the Unknown Regions is safe, and Eniknar, who notably sacrificed himself in order to further the Battle of Esfandia in the Alliance and Remnant's favor, turns out not to be the traitor after all. The traitor turns out to be an Ugnaught named Tegg, who is captured and arrested.

One night, the group is attacked, and Danni is captured, by a group of rogue Ferroans and Jacen and Saba follow them to the point where they allow themselves to be captured by the Ferroans and taken to their leader, Senshi. But afterward, just after they meet Senshi, the rogue Ferroan band leave and are trapped by a group of boras trees that go rogue and try to attack the group. But Jacen calms them down through the Force. Meanwhile, Luke coerces Sekot not to destroy the sole surviving member of the Yuuzhan Vong battle group and lets it get away so the living planet wouldn't succumb to the dark side of the Force. Sekot then contacts both Jacen and Luke at the same time—to Jacen, the planet appears as Jacen's late master, Vergere, and to Luke, Sekot appears as his father, Anakin. Sekot asks the both of them if they really want it to join the war. Jacen, through his own conscience, believing he doesn't want to be responsible for the extinction of the Vong, says no, but Luke, for the sake of the galaxy, says yes. Sekot agrees to Luke's terms and gets the entire planet ready for a hyperspace jump back to known space.

On Yuuzhan'tar, Nom Anor witnesses Shimrra reveal that Ngaaluh is a traitor to his court. Watching this event unfold, Nom Anor is horror-stricken when he sees through the villip connection that Ngaaluh has that she kills herself by slitting her throat before she could be executed. Her body is dumped with the corpses of Anor's dead rivals, and with Ngaaluh dies the best chance of overthrowing Shimrra.